


nightmares, windows, and cigarettes

by adderair



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bruce Wayne Does Not Adopt Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Civilian Jason Todd, Jason Todd is Not Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:33:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26110456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adderair/pseuds/adderair
Summary: Jason Todd is not having a good month. He's about to get evicted, he's deep in debt from his mother's funeral, struggling with scarily vivid nightmares, and batman just broke his window. Jason really hates Gotham sometimes.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 8
Kudos: 172





	nightmares, windows, and cigarettes

The cold from the fire escape seeps through his ratty sweatpants, slowly but steadily spreading ice through his veins. He savors a cigarette, inhaling slowly, letting the smoke rest in his lungs to combat the chill numbing his body, then exhaling it through his nose. He stares out over Gotham, too-old eyes idly raking over the tall, sleek skyscrapers, interspersed with gothic buildings darkness eternally seems to cling to, bright lights struggling to illuminate this hellhole of a city. With a deep sigh, he stubs out his cigarette on the railing, then hauls himself to his feet, slipping back through his open window.  
  
  
As he makes his way through his barren apartment, he mourns the fact that next month he'll be kicked out, no longer able to keep up with rent and pay for his mother's chemo. Well, the debt from the chemo that had just killed her faster.  
  
  
In his nightmares, she's there, stick thin arms covered in track marks reaching out to him, blue veins running under her skin, eyes wreathed in bags, tearful whispers pleading him to join her in the cold ground. When he turns to run, her face twists up, teeth baring, as she lunges at him with suprising strength in her frail body as her fingers latch into his hair, as she drags him into the ground. Damp, dark earth filling his mouth as he struggles and screams, choking him as the earth caves in on top of him, his mother's eyes glowing a dim green in the dark the last thing he sees before he wakes up.  
  
  
With a 'oomph' he falls backwards onto his lumpy couch, wriggling around until he nestles into the indents his mother's body had made as she slept off her latest hit, or later on, the exhaustion and bone deep ache from her chemo. Sometimes, if he breathes in deeply, he can still smell her. Sharp sweat, her strawberry mint shampoo, and cigarette smoke filling his nose with the combination of smells that was always her own. Its been long enough, though, that he's pretty sure its just his mind refusing to acknoledge he'll never smell it again, or hear her laugh, feel her spindly arms pull him against her chest as she pressed her nose into his hair and promised him things she couldn't provide.  
  
  
Shaking his head at himself he reaches for the remote, just to remember that cable got cancelled two days ago. Instead, he blindly reaches around the side table behind his head until he finds his copy of pride and prejudice. He's read it 12 times over, until its worn, the pages wrinkled, and small obervations doodled in the margins. He's just opened it up to the page he left off, when someone crashes through his window with a dramatic shattering of glass.  
  
  
Suprised, he leaps to his feet, hands going for the small knife he keeps tucked in his waistband. He lives in Crime Alley, its a neccesity. When his eyes catch up to his brain, a small, strangled noise wretches its way out of his throat. Batman just broke his window. Batman is laying in a pile of glass shards in his lightless kitchen. Batman. The owner of the Batmobile, the very same that he'd stolen the tires off of years ago. Batman looks embarrassed, what he can see of his face is red as he stands, brushing Jason's window off his costume.  
  
  
"Sorry about that." Batman rasps in his gravelly voice, somehow managing to look intimidating and sheepish as he turns to look at Jason, who gapes at him. "Miscalculated the height between roofs." Jason glances at the remnants of his window, then Batman incredulously.  
  
  
"Pretty fuckin' big miscalculation." Jason snorts, trying to reign in his temper. No way he'll be able to pay to replace THAT. Now he's gonna have to live with a broken window for a month before he gets his ass kicked outta the complex, he thinks angrily.  
  
"I'll replace that." Batman says, seeming to notice Jason's internal freakout over the window. Then, with a dramatic swish of his cape, he disappears into the night, probably trying to make up for lying on the ground like an idiot for 20 seconds.  
  
Jason rubs a hand over his face roughly, only in Gotham, he thinks. 

\--------------------------  
Two days later, he comes back from a run to find an old British dude in a domino mask fixing his window, and a pot of steaming jasmine tea on his stove.  
  
  
Too sleep deprived to worry about All Of That, he pours himself a cup of tea and curls up on his couch, sipping at the (suprisingly good) tea and opens up his book again. The British dude works quickly and efficently as he installs a new window, and seeming to feel Jason's eyes on him speaks,  
  
  
"Master Batman thought that replacing your old window with one of the bulletproof variety would be suitable retribution." He says in a prim british accent, turning over his shoulder to cast a glance at Jason.  
  
  
Jason snorts quietly, "Well the new tenants will appreciate that." He says, turning his page and then reaching for his tea, "I'm getting evicted at the end of the month." He takes a deep sip of the tea, then crosses his legs as he wriggles around, settling into the worn, softest parts of his hideous yellow couch. (He remembers his mother getting it when he was 6 or so, and wrapping him up in her arms as she pouted in response to his horrified face.)  
  
The man tuts quietly, then turns and leaves, with a remark of, "There's cookies being kept warm in the oven." Jason watches him go. 

**Author's Note:**

> just a quick lil oneshot, sorry if there's any misspellings or whatever I did this at 2 am and i'm sleep deprived. anyways, hope you enjoyed :) if so, please leave a comment or smthn. also, I have no idea why its bold I have no idea how ao3 works, sorry :/  
> EDIT: IM GOING TO WRITE A CONTINUATION OF THIS, might take a while but yes, i am writing a sequel  
> EDIT 2: because i freaking love fics like this, i’m writing the sequel as a alternative dimension fic with a plot i’m still working on:) gimme within a week and a month or two and it will probably be posted.  
> EDIT 3: i lied i’m too lazy lol sorryyy, however if someone else wants to write a continuation go ahead, but i’m too lazy to sit down and write it myself


End file.
